Читать книгу English for Life Grade 4 Home Language Learner's Book - Lynne Southey - Страница 5

Introduction

Do you remember this story? Tell a friend. You can also read it in the English for Life Core Reader.

Every culture tells stories: fairy stories, animal stories, fables, myths and historical tales. Children of all ages love stories that are read or told to them.

In this module you will read different kinds of stories and poems about animals, and write some yourself. You will talk to your classmates about what you see and read and make a speech. You will also do some language work and revise nouns, verbs, adjectives, pronouns and prepositions. You will also revise direct and indirect speech and read about similes and idioms.

To do all this, you need to develop your thinking and reasoning skills and to expand your vocabulary.

Let’s talk, read, write, draw and think!

In the first activity below you are going to do many different things. First you will talk about different animals. We give you pictures to get you started. You will also answer questions in writing and practise your writing and language skills. You will read information to understand why animals look different from each other. And you will draw an imaginary animal. You will also make a vocabulary list of all the new words you have found.

1. Look at the photos and read the names of different animals below:

2. Talk about the animals. Ask each other questions such as:

 • Which animal do you like the most?

 • Which animal have you seen in real life?

 • Which is the best looking animal? Which is the ugliest animal? Why?

 • Which are tame and which wild?

How to hold a discussion with a partner:

 • You must take turns talking

 • You must only talk about the animals, not change the topic

 • Answer questions in a way that adds to the discussion

 • Be polite and listen to your partner

3. Read the following passage about animals and then talk to your partner:

Animals have the body shape and design that they do because of where they live and what they eat. An anteater, for example, has a long narrow snout that makes it possible for it to suck up ants from a small hole. If a hippo was an anteater it would have great difficulty finding ants in their nests and sucking them up into its great wide mouth. Is it then fair to describe some animals as ugly or funny-looking? Or to compare them? Even dog types are very different from each other because of their purpose.

(a) Does this information change the way you see the animals on the previous page?

(b) Can you give reasons why the animals are built the way they are?

(c) Imagine an animal that would suit the following lifestyle. You can make it up: it lives in snow, eats roots, and is eaten by larger animals. Now draw it and give it a name.

4. Your teacher will use a rubric like the one below to assess your language use in speaking.

Rubric for the assessment of language use during speaking

Looking at language

Here you are going to revise different parts of speech. The table in the activity reminds you of what the different parts of speech are. Then you will write out different types of sentences to describe the cartoon you see. Remember a sentence can be:

 • a statement, for example ‘This is a book.’

 • a question, for example ‘Who does this book belong to?’

 • a command, for example ‘Give your book to me.’

 • an exclamation, for example ‘This work is done well!’

Next you will make a vocabulary list of all new words you have found.

1. Look again at the passage given on the previous page. Find and write out

 • the following parts of speech. You can use a table like the one below:

2. Write a different kind of sentence for each of the cartoons below as asked:

(a) Write a statement. Remember to punctuate it with a full stop. (.)

(b) Write a question. Remember to punctuate it with a question mark. (?)

(c) Write a command. You may use a full stop or an exclamation mark (!).

(d) Write a command. You may use a full stop or an exclamation mark (!).

Make a list of all the new words you have read so far. If you still do not know their meanings, look them up. Write the meanings next to each word. You need to do this every day. Keep a book of personal spelling and meanings. You can call it Word power.

Some quick revision

You already know a great deal about how to use language. We are going to remind you about some elements and give you some exercises to do to test your knowledge, so that we can be sure you remember these elements.

 • Do you remember the spelling rule, double the consonant of words that end in only one syllable when you add a suffix such as -ed, -ing, -er? For example slip becomes slipped, slipping, slipper. We give you some sentences to write to see if you can apply this rule.

 • You will also tell a story to your partner, using tense and vocabulary as well as you can.

 • You will write one sentence saying what is going to happen next in a picture, using the future tense.

1. Write the following sentences in the past tense. Check your spelling.

(a) The rabbits hop through the field.

(b) The boy and his dog plod through the mud.

(c) The lamb skips away from its mother.

(d) The dog drops the ball at the boy’s feet.

(e) The balloon pops when the kitten hits it with its paw.

2. There are five sentences in the table below. Match the sentence with its description by rewriting the table.

3. Do you remember this story about animals? Tell your partner.

4. Look at the drawing below. Write one sentence to say what is going to happen next. Show your sentence to your partner to comment on.

Listening to a tale

Aesop was a storyteller who lived a long, long time ago. His fables or stories were a way of teaching lessons or morals.

In the next activity you are going to practise your listening skills and show that you have heard and understood what is read to you.

1. Look at the drawing on the next page.

2. Discuss the picture with a partner. Why do the villagers ignore the boy?

3. Can you see any moral or lesson in the picture? You and your partner should decide on one.

4. Now listen while your teacher reads you a fable. See how good your predictions were. Your teacher may use part of the activity for formal assessment.

5. Copy the following sentences and fill in the missing words.

(a) The boy’s task was to … the sheep.

(b) The wolves lived in the . . .

(c) … the boy cried wolf and twice the villagers came to help him.

(d) The boy had to watch the wolf … the sheep one by one.

(e) The lesson this fable teaches is that if you tell lies, you will not be … even when you tell the truth.

6. Tell your partner about an occasion when you were not believed even though you were telling the truth. Why were you not believed?

7. Do you remember this story of a boy who told lies? Tell your partner.

8. Now read the following fable to yourself. What is its moral? Discuss this with your partner.

The Miser

A miserly man sold everything he had and bought a lump of gold with the money. He buried this gold in a hole that he dug next to an old wall at the back of his house. Every day he went to look at his gold. He dug it up and then reburied it. One of the men who worked for him saw these daily visits and decided to see what they were about. He found the lump of gold and stole it.

The next day when the miser went to look at his gold he saw that it was gone. He was very unhappy, tore out his hair and cried loudly. A neighbour heard the noise and came to see what the matter was. When he heard what had happened he said:

‘Take a stone and bury it in the place where the gold was. Imagine that this stone is your lump of gold. The stone will serve exactly the same purpose as the gold did, for you were not making any use of the gold at all.’

9. Discuss with your partner: Have the people in the drawings learnt the lesson the fable teaches?

Speaking to an audience

What makes us want to listen to someone speaking in public?

 • We must want to hear what the person has to say, so it must be interesting or funny or important.

 • We must also be able to hear and understand the person speaking.

 • We need to feel that the person is speaking to us.

When you speak in public you need to remember these three rules. In the next activity you are going to practise giving a speech.

1. In your group, discuss the pets you have or have had in the past. Talk about what is good or bad about keeping a pet. Have any of you had a good or bad experience with an animal?

2. Look at the drawings on the opposite page. What creatures are these? Do you know of anyone who has had any of them as pets? Discuss which one you would like and take turns saying why you have chosen it.

3. In your group each chooses any one creature. It does not have to be one of those in the picture on the next page, but no member of the group must have the same creature as another member.

4. Go and find information on the animal of your choice. Write the information out in the form of a speech. When you come back to class, you are each going to present your speech to your group. The group can decide who made the best speech.

5. Use the checklist below to help you prepare your speech. You can also use it to judge your group members’ speeches.

6. Present your speech to your group.

7. Decide for yourself whose speech you found the most interesting. Write two sentences saying why you chose this particular speech. Be sure to express yourself in a clear way, using correct language and vocabulary.

8. Now, just for fun, see how many different animals you see in this strange creature. Compare your list with your group’s. What can we call this creature?

Nouns and adjectives

How did you do in Activity 1.5? Did you remember all the parts of speech? We are going to remind you here about nouns and adjectives.

There are four kinds of nouns:

 • proper nouns: names, e.g. Peter, Pretoria

 • common nouns: name things, e.g. dog, snake, lion

 • collective nouns: name a collection of things, e.g. flock, herd, litter

 • abstract nouns: name things we cannot touch or see, e.g. joy, pain

Adjectives describe nouns, e.g a big dog, a poisonous snake, a fierce lion.

In the next activity you are going to play a game using nouns and adjectives.

Make sure you know what they are.

1. Your teacher will have two boxes. In the one box there are small slips of paper with an adjective written on each and in the other a noun. You must take one piece of paper out of each box.

2. Now draw a picture which suits your two pieces. Make it funny and interesting. Use colour. Here is an example for you:

3. Show your picture to your group. Let them guess what your noun and adjective were. Decide together whose drawing is the strangest.

Reading and writing

You learnt to read and write years ago. This is called being ‘literate’. However, literacy consists of skills that you will go on improving all your life.

Sometimes we need to ‘read’ drawings or diagrams: cartoons, signs, charts, tables, graphs, and maps, for example. This is called ‘visual literacy’. Sometimes we even need to change words into diagrams, or diagrams into words. To do this we have to understand what we read or see.

In the next activity we are going to practise reading and writing in several of these ways.

1. A cartoon consists of a drawing and is usually meant to be funny. Often there are words in a cartoon, either spoken by someone in the cartoon, given in a speech bubble pointing to the mouth of the speaker, or a caption or heading telling us what the cartoon is about. Here is a cartoon. Look at it and read what the dog is thinking.

(a) Fill in the missing words in this sentence: The … throws the stick, the … fetches it, and the … is the one whose thoughts we read.

(b) If dogs could think, what would the dog in the cartoon be thinking in the real world? Discuss this with your partner and then write out a sentence in direct speech, giving the dog’s words.

(c) Have you ever thrown a ball or a stick for a dog? Write one sentence describing the dog’s behaviour. Use at least one adjective.

(d) Who do you think will find this cartoon funny? Do you think the cartoonist aimed his cartoon at a particular kind of person?

(e) Are the words in the speech bubble in direct speech or reported speech? Explain why you say so.

2. Read the following short text about dolphins.

Did you know that dolphins have been known to rescue humans? For centuries sailors and fishermen have told tales of dolphins guiding them to shore when they were lost, herding them like a sheepdog herds a flock of sheep. Other stories are told about dolphins rescuing whales that get stranded in shallow water.

When the tide comes in, the dolphins swim with the exhausted whales, pushing them and guiding them into deeper water.

One young man, surfing out in the big waves, was attacked by a shark. The shark managed to rip the skin off his back and bite deeply into his leg. The surfer thought he was going to die. He was too far out to call for help or even to be seen from the shore. Three dolphins came to his rescue. They swam round him again and again, stopping the shark from attacking him, and they gently pushed him closer and closer to shore. When the surfer was close enough to human help, the dolphins turned and swam back out to sea.

Why do dolphins do this? What do they gain from it? Most animals, and humans too, only do something which brings them something else. Dolphins seem to help others without wanting something in return. They are the only animals who do this.

(a) Which drawing above is of the shark, which the whale and which the dolphin?

(b) Tell your partner what you feel about each of the three.

(c) Find synonyms (words that mean the same) in the text for the following words: save, hundreds of years, stories, tired, tear, beach.

(d) Write a sentence summarising the first paragraph and another summarising the second.

(e) Can you think of a time when something or someone rescued something else or someone else? Think about the plot of your story (what happens) and the setting (where it happens). You should write it out in an interesting way for your partner to read. Here is a way to do this:

Plan for writing a short story

Think about what you want to say.

 • Write down a few words that will help you.

 • Use different kinds of sentences and choose interesting words.

 • Make sure your ideas follow each other in a way a reader can understand.

 • Check your work for errors of spelling or language use.

(f) Read your partner’s short story. If you think it can be improved, make suggestions in writing. When you receive your own story back from your partner, read the suggestions, and if you agree, improve your story.

(g) Hand in your final version for your teacher to evaluate.

Your teacher will use the following rubric to assess your work:

Looking at the way we use language

A writer always thinks about who will be reading what he or she writes. Will it be children or the general public or people who know a great deal about a certain subject? The writer will also think about the purpose of writing, the why. Is it to entertain, to teach a lesson, to inform about something?

What can a writer do to provide different kinds of texts? The writer can:

 • choose words carefully.

 • use different kinds of sentences.

 • use direct or reported speech.

 • use formal or informal language.

In the next activity you will decide on the kind of language used, and what audience it was written for and its purpose.

1. Look at the picture below carefully. Tell your partner what you see. Do not look at the sentences in 2!

2. Below are four sentences describing the picture. Below them, in the table, are words describing the kind of language, the audience, and the purpose. Draw a table like the one below. The words are jumbled up. Your task is to arrange them correctly to match each sentence.

(a) The little boy first looked carefully around to make sure that the bent old man was not following him (from a fairy story).

(b) The youngster glanced about to ensure that the elderly man was no longer behind him (formal language, from an adult novel).

(c) The little guy checked around to see if he had lost the old geezer (informal).

(d) ‘Then I saw the boy turn around and look behind him. I think he was making sure that the old man had gone’ (direct speech).

Looking at the language of rhymes and stories

In the next activity we are going to look at how language is used in nonsense rhymes and a short story. You need to remember that the writers have chosen their words and the ways they use them for the effect they create, whether it is for fun or to tell a story.

Edward Lear lived in London in the 1800s. He wrote nonsense rhymes.

His little poems are called ‘nonsense rhymes’ because they do not make sense even though the language and grammar are correct. Often his purpose was to make fun of the people or the fashions around him. Sometimes he even made words up.

1. Below are two of his rhymes and their drawings, also done by him. Read the poems aloud softly to yourself. Notice the beat or rhythm of the words.

Poem A

There was an Old Man in a Barge,

Whose Nose was exceedingly large;

But in fishing by night,

It supported a light,

Which helped that Old Man in a Barge

Poem B

There was an Old Man with a beard,

Who said, “It is just as I feared!

Two Owls and a Hen,

Four Larks and a Wren,

Have all built their nests in my beard!”

(a) Write down a list of the rhyming words in each poem.

(b) Write down one sentence for each poem explaining why it is nonsense.

(c) Fill in the missing words in the following sentence:

Lear is mocking people with big…in the first poem, and people with…in the second one.

(d) Do you find the poems funny? Do the drawings make them funny?

Discuss these two questions with your partner. Give reasons for what you say.

(e) Who do you think these poems were written for? Write down your answer.

(f) Write a nonsense rhyme yourself, using the same form as Lear did: five lines, the same rhyming, and the same rhythm. Share it with your partner.

2. (pairs) The tale of the lion and the rabbit has been told to generations of children before you.

(a) Look at the picture below and see if you can either recognise the story or predict what it is about.

(b) Read the first two paragraphs aloud to your partner and listen while your partner reads the last two aloud to you.

Formal Assessment:

When your teacher assesses your reading aloud skills as part of the Formal Assessment Task 1, he or she will use the following rubric.

The lion king and the rabbit

An ancient African story

1. The lion, who was king of the forest, was feared by all the other animals. He used to hunt and eat one of them every day. One day he called all the other animals together. ‘I have to hunt and eat one of you every morning. Nothing can change that. However, if every evening you decide which one of you it will be, that one can come to my cave in the morning to be my breakfast and I can leave the rest of you alone and you won’t have to run away.’

2. The animals agreed, and every evening they drew lots* to see who would be eaten the next morning. Each morning the unlucky animal who had been chosen went to the lion’s cave to be eaten, while the other animals peacefully grazed. One evening the rabbit was chosen. He said he did not want to be the lion’s breakfast, and would think of a plan.

3. The next morning he arrived late at the lion’s cave, apologising for keeping the king waiting. The lion demanded that he come closer. The rabbit said: ‘I wouldn’t eat me, if I were you. I have promised to return to the cave of the real king of the forest, so that he can eat me. He will be very angry if you do, and chase you out of the forest.’ The lion demanded to be taken to this other lion, who the rabbit said was bigger and stronger than he was. The lion said he would kill the intruder or chase him away.

4. The rabbit set out for a well he had once seen, with the lion following. After some time they came to the well and the rabbit told the lion that his rival lived inside it. The lion went forward and looked down into the well. Seeing his own reflection in the water, he leapt in to attack his rival and was never seen again.

* To draw lots means to let chance decide, for example, by seeing who takes the piece of paper with the cross on it out of the box.

Do you think the lion would have enjoyed having any of these animals for his breakfast? Why or why not?

(c) What are the effects of the rabbit’s words on the lion?

(d) If we change the lion’s first sentence into reported speech, it reads: The lion said that he had to hunt and eat one of them every morning. Change the lion’s third sentence into reported speech. Write it out.

(e) Write down six verbs from the second paragraph.

(f) Join up with another pair for the following game. Someone will need to keep score. One of you names an animal starting with the letter ‘a’, for example, ‘armadillo’. The next person has to name an animal starting with the last letter of that animal, for example, ‘orangutan’. If someone cannot think of an animal, that person scores one point, and gives an animal starting with the letter ‘b’ and the game continues. The person with the highest score is the loser.

A last look at language

The words we use to describe things show how we feel about them. These words could be complimentary or rude, insensitive and discriminatory. Here is an example to help you understand:

‘You are a real monkey’ said to someone who is not very bright. How would the person feel on hearing this? It would be better to say: ‘I can see you are struggling with that. Can I help you?’

In the final activity you are going to change any language that is inappropriate for the occasion, or that hurts the person it is addressed to.

1. The following sentences are not polite. Change them so that they are. Write a sentence explaining what is wrong with each.

(a) Hey! Move out of my way. (1)

(b) That is mine! Give it to me! (1)

(c) You are stupid! Don’t you know how to do that? (1)

(d) That girl is so fat she looks like a hippo. (1)

(e) Okay, I said I was sorry. What more do you want? (1)

(f) He is poor, look how he dresses. We don’t want him at our animal fancy dress party. (1)

(g) Boys are always better at science than girls. (1)

(h) Okay, I’ll take it, but it’s not something I really want. (1)

2. Look up the following words in a dictionary and add them with their meanings to your

personal vocabulary and spelling list:

(a) discrimination (2)

(b) racist (2)

(c) sexist (2)

(d) ageist (2)

(e) derogatory (2)

3. In the first column in the box below are words that are not polite to use when referring to people. Provide a more polite description in the second column. You may need to change the meaning.

Note: Stereotyping occurs when we generalise about someone or something, for example, if we say that all Muslim women wear headscarves or all slender people have Aids. We should not use stereotypes but rather look at the individual we are referring to.

Drama

A drama or play is written to be acted on the stage. It is usually divided into acts and scenes. It gives a list of the characters and the props or stage properties that are to be placed on the stage. The words in italics describe the setting. The words each character speaks are written after the name of that character. The part in italics in brackets indicates what the actor should do. They are not spoken. Usually actors have to memorise the words they are to speak so that they can act out the drama in front of an audience. In the following activity you are going to read a one-act drama. This activity should cover three periods.

1. Get into groups of four. Each will read a part of the following drama. Make sure that the person who plays the lion is a good reader.

Evening. Outside in the veld. Lion, Leopard and Zebra are sitting on the front left-hand side of the stage. They are talking to each other, but not to the Mantis. African music which is slowly fading away is playing.

Lion	(Throws his arms excitedly up in the air): Are you ready for a story?
Leopard:	Yes! Yes!
Zebra:	Me too. I also want to hear a story!
Lion	(laughing loudly): Alright then! Let me tell you a story that the San people often tell their children.
Zebra:	(jumps up): I’m burning with curiosity. What is the name of the story?
Lion:	(Takes a deep breath) This is the story of the mantis and the moon. Come closer, and listen carefully. There was once a mantis who had very big dreams.
Mantis steps on stage. He looks around him, poking about here and there. The moon slowly rises over the mountains.
Mantis	(watches the moon and sighs dreamily): Wow, just look at how breathtaking the moon looks tonight! Silver … and radiant … Just as it was last night. (calls out) Hello, moon! (Waits, but the moon does not reply) Oh, he never answers. It is probably because he has no mouth. (gazes at the moon and sighs loudly) It is so very beautiful – like goat’s milk in a calabash. How I wish that the moon belonged to me!
Leopard and Zebra:	But that cannot be!
Lion:	Yes, and that is where the trouble started.
Mantis:	If the moon were mine, I could sit on its back. Every evening, I could travel across the whole sky. All the animals would see me and say: ‘That mantis is truly amazing. Look at him riding on the moon. And he does not even fall off!’ (laughs happily)
Lion:	And then, the mantis came up with a plan.
Mantis:	I will find a way to catch the moon. Yes, yes! I will catch him, and then he will belong to me.
Mantis leaps into the air and tries to reach the moon.
Lion:	But the mantis soon realised that it would not be so easy. His wings were too short … and far too weak to allow him to fly all the way to the moon to catch it. He had to devise another plan.
Moon sets, Sun rises
Leopard:	Ah!
Lion:	The mantis waited impatiently for the day to pass so that the moon would rise again.
Mantis keeps looking up into the sky. From time to time he yawns.
Zebra:	He must have been exhausted!
Lion:	Yes, Zebra, he must have been. And so, much later, darkness started to fall.
Sun sets, Moon rises
Lion:	Slowly but surely, the moon slipped out from behind the mountains …
Mantis	(excited): There he is! The moon … My moon!
The moon moves behind a camel thorn tree.
Mantis:	Aha! Look! The moon is trapped in the camel thorn tree! Now I will get my hands on him. (runs nearer, tries to take the moon out of the tree) Come to me, you beautiful thing.
Leopard:	But it did not work.
Lion:	Snatch it. (laughs) Then the moon moved towards the baobab tree. The mantis tried again, and again when the moon moved behind an acacia tree, and then into a baobab.
Moon moves to a baobab and then to an acacia tree and then to a camel thorn tree, with Mantis trying each time to grasp it.
Zebra:	But that didn’t work either.
Lion:	The poor little green creature was dog-tired by now.
Moon sets, Sun rises
Lion:	The following day, the mantis frantically tried to come up with a new plan.
Mantis stands with his back to the audience. He laughs sneakily while he is making something.
Mantis	(turning round showing a noose): Look at my clever noose! I wove it out of long blades of grass. I will catch the moon with this. (laughs heartily)
Sun sets, Moon rises. Mantis tries to catch the moon with his noose, but it does not work.
Zebra:	I am starting to feel sorry for the mantis!
The moon sets. The sun rises. Mantis walks around, dragging his feet.
Lion:	The mantis was also feeling very sorry for himself. But then, he found something strange …
Mantis	(picks up a toy made of a reed, a feather and a stone): What is this? The San children were probably playing with it … and then forgot it here. (He throws it up into the air several times. It spins back down to the ground.) This is wonderful! I could throw it at the moon … and it would twist around the moon … and bring the moon back with it when it falls to earth.
Sun sets. Moon rises. Mantis watches the moon expectantly, the looks at the toy in his hand.
Lion	(mysteriously): I wonder – will the mantis finally catch the silvery moon? What do you think?
Zebra:	Yes! He will!
Leopard:	Oh no, it’s a stupid plan, Zebra.
Lion:	The mantis does not think so. He waits for the right moment … and then!
Mantis hurls the toy into the air, directly at the moon. It spins back to earth.
Lion:	The mantis collapses next to the pool of water. But wait! What does he see there?
Mantis	(rubs his eyes, then becomes very excited): Can this really be? There is the moon, lying right here in the water! (grabs at the moon’s reflection over and over) Come to me you wondrous thing. (looks at his empty hands dismayed) Why can’t I touch you? You are ugly! (picks up a rock and throws it into the water)
Zebra and Leopard:
Ooh!
Lion:	A terrible thing happens next. When the stone hits the water, the moonlight shatters into a thousand pieces.
Mantis	(clutches his face): My eyes! I can’t see! The shards of moonlight are stuck in my eyes.
Zebra:	That poor thing!
Lion:	The mantis was crushed. His dream of riding the moon was gone. He no longer had any desire to travel across the sky on the moon’s back while everyone admired him.
Mantis	(bends his head humbly and folds his hands in prayer): Oh please, Moon. Restore my sight. I will never try to catch you again, or dream of riding on your back. I will never again wish for the admiration of others. Just let me see again, please … please …
Moon sets, Sun rises
Lion:	When the day was dawning, something wonderful happened.
Mantis	(rubs his eyes, astonished): My eyes … I can see! I can see!
Lion:	Oh, the mantis was overjoyed! All the animals could hear him singing.
Mantis sings and dances
Lion:	Today, you can still see the mantis … with his forelegs folded in prayer while he gives thanks to the moon for restoring his sight.
[adapted from Fanie Viljoen’s Enchanted Stone series Enchanting Stories Reader 2 Level 5 pp. 65-75, taken from M. Poland’s ‘The Mantis and the Moon’ from Madiba Magic. Tafelberg, 2002.]

2. You are going to identify different elements of a drama. Write a few words from the play into Column B giving examples of each element in Column A.

3. This play or drama is a story within a story. Who is the storyteller in the play, and who is the main character in the story told?

Formal Assesment: Your teacher may ask you to write a paragraph as part of task 1.

Your teacher will use this checklist to assess your paragraph: